Apparently, a heck of a lot.
This film had been in production for nearly ten years. Ever since Freddy’s claw burst out of the ground in the absurd finale of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, die-hard fans of both killers had been anxiously awaiting this battle to end all battles. The only thing holding back the production of this film was a decent script. Well, here it is, ten years later, a script has finally been approved, the film has finally finished production, it has finally been through theatres (hitting the #1 spots in the charts for quite a while—not bad for a horror film), and now it is here on DVD for all of the slasher fanatics to hold and cuddle in the comfort of their own homes. But has it really lived up to all of the hype? Was this film really worth the decade-long wait?
The film begins with Freddy (played by Robert Englund—the guy who has played Freddy in every single film since it’s beginning) telling the story of what’s happened since we’ve last seen him. He’s been in Hell, forgotten by the youth of today thanks to the Elm Street cops (who have been covering up the whole idea of “Freddy” and pretending that it never happened) and a little dream-stifling drug called Hypnocil. Because without fear or dreams, Freddy is nothing. Jason, however is a different story. Played by newcomer Ken Kirzinger, Jason is still roaming around Camp Crystal Lake, slaughtering all in his way. Freddy takes note of this, and decides that he can summon Jason to help spread the word of Freddy again. Thus, Freddy will be back doing what he does best, and we all know what that is. All is fine and dandy, Jason is starting to spread fear into the teens of Elm Street, and Freddy is slowly regaining his powers from that fear. Well, wouldn’t you know it, Freddy gets his powers back, but Jason doesn’t stop the teen slaughtering. Freddy begins to take offense to this, and longs for some murders of his own. So, naturally, the two start fighting over who gets to kill whom.
Sure, the parts with Freddy and Jason are awesome, but one of the film’s major flaws is (believe it or not) that there are not enough of them in it. The pace is a bit screwy in this one, getting caught up in side stories with the teens (one being Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland, who should stick to music and stay far, far away from acting) that no one really cares about at all. It’s a bit like someone stuck a really bad drama film in between a huge battle between two horror icons. There were times when I found myself thinking, “Just show Freddy and Jason fighting…”, and, thankfully, patience is a strong virtue, because the final scenes of this film show just that (and more). It just takes a while to get to those scenes. Not that every scene before the ending is horrible, because many of those pesky teens get slaughtered in pretty darn creative ways (the bed death being my favorite), it’s just that the final battle between Freddy and Jason is so cool that, if you’re like me, you’ll forget about everything else you’ve seen previously…at least temporarily.
Now, the other reason we buy DVDs…special features. If you’re a DVD extra kind of person, this 2-disc set will not disappoint. The first disc contains audio commentary from director Ronny Yu and actors Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger. The second disc contains a total of twenty (!) deleted and alternate scenes, many production tidbits, including two well-written articles from one of my favorite magazines, Fangoria, and many publicity and promotion segments, including the theatrical trailer, TV spots, a music video, and two cool documentaries showcasing a press conference and the Freddy vs. Jason world premiere.
Overall, this DVD is one not to be missed by fans of the horror genre. If the special features don’t attract you, there’s no denying that this film is truly one of the great B-movies of our time. It is the equivalent of It! The Terror from Beyond Space for the new millennium. Sure, it has horrible acting and cheesy one-liners, but isn’t that what makes these films so great? Even if you’re not a fan of films that are so bad they’re good, the ending sequence of this film is worth the price alone and will have you staring wide-eyed at the screen, soaking in the utter awesomeness of the final battle.